


Invisible Lives

by thepiedownthehall



Series: Sonder and Onism [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Also Lotura is healthy in this don't worry, Alternate Universe - High School, But Lotor's relationship with his parents is uhhh not, But dont worry it does get happy its just, Child Abuse, Dysfunctional Family, Dysfunctional Relationships, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, POV Allura (Voltron), Past Child Abuse, Pining, Self-Hatred, Suicidal Thoughts, Transfer Student Allura, Underage Drinking, Underage Drug Use, very much nOT HAPPY AT FIRST
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-18
Updated: 2018-08-16
Packaged: 2019-05-25 02:48:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 14,808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14967467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thepiedownthehall/pseuds/thepiedownthehall
Summary: She always assumed high school coming of age stories were an over dramatization, a one in a million story. A lottery for the worthy tale, for the worst luck, the best luck, the slipperiest slopes possible. To win the narrative worthy of being published.She always was the lucky one.





	1. Adomania

**Author's Note:**

> This was written before season 6, the series PLANNED way before season 6. And I will continue this fic because I need content for this shit.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Allura gets more than what she bargained for.
> 
> Namely a face too pretty to resist.

As a child, Allura used to have this game with her father.

 They would walk around the manor gardens, had in hand. She remember the calluses on his hands, a giant leading the princess through a forest, the greenery seeming to want to reach down and swallow her whole. An ant in the vastness of its home.

  _“Pick a flower, my dear,”_ he would say, his voice soft but booming. She always went for the daisies, picking them by the stem, holding them gently, like they held the world.

  _“Count the petals for me,”_ he used to ask.

 She never did. She just gave him a random number, even if it was in the thousands. But she usually went for six.

_“Six? Alright then, Allura. Let’s take six and turn it into four. Six, is three, three is five, five is four, and four is?”_

_“Four,” she used to say._

_“So four, is the magic number.”_

He was a wizard to her. How could three ever be five? How could five ever be four?

But everything was magic to her back then.

Everything was held together by the magic of fairy tales and monsters, protected by the man with a chemist’s heart and knight’s will.

The magic was snuffed out when he was found on a major intersection with his arms around his wife and his head through a windshield, the other man too busy floating on alcohol induced clouds, not fast enough to come back to earth and put his foot on the brake.

 

“Here you go. One Lemonade, no ice, straight from the food truck.”

Allura looked up, blinking away the memories to focus on the familiar grin and tousled hair. Lance sat down next to her, handing her the drink.

“So, you ready for the school year?"

Allura shrugged. “With all the information you’ve drilled into my head, I would hope I was ready.”

Lance was her closest friend since she had moved here a few months ago, and he had taken it upon himself to teach Allura bout the “ _wonders of the hormonal cesspit of high school”._ Especially _their_ high school, if he was to be trusted.

The “cesspit of hormones” she was to be attending was not much more than a campus of 4 shiny buildings, giving the illusion that the students were as sparkly and pristine as the buildings themselves.

It was easy to keep up appearances.

Lance had explained to her how the school was separated, cut in sections like a deformed block of cheese. Where to avoid during lunch, when the teenagers ran free like bulls out of their pens.

The fine arts students stayed separate from each other, unless they were in the grey area of the venn diagram of the schoolwide social circles, and they _never_ stayed in the fine arts building. The jocks took over the top floor of the school, theatre kids hid in the basement. The science and math nerds stayed in their respective classrooms, often accompanied by failing jocks and stoners that needed to get their grades up to passing to play or graduate. The makeup divas stayed eating on the stairs, making it impossible for anyone to go where they needed to go until their eyeliner flicked properly.

If you didn’t fit into any of those categories, or simply didn’t care, you stayed in the cafeteria.

That’s where Lance ate, the concoction of jock, nerd, and something-in-between that he called his friends not really having a place anywhere else.

Pidge, the jittery mess, always tapping, always jumping, always adjusting her glasses. Resident tech expert, one of the highest IQ’s in the school, but the lowest grades of the group, mind working too fast to bother to remember about homework or sleep until the first rays of the sun trickled into her room, chastising her absent-mindedness.

Hunk, the dreamer, the sweetheart with a will of steel. He was the warmth of the group, the hearth, the one with the hugs that swallowed you whole and left you feeling more _you_ than before. The gentle giant with the ability to strike you down with a few carefully chosen words.

Keith, the former rival, the boy who learned the secrets of death long before the rest of them did, the lone wolf who found his pack, but still trying to find his place in it. Allura didn’t know much about him, but they had that silent acknowledgement of two people without a family. Well, almost without a family. She had Coran, and he had Shiro, the only one who could disarm Keith with a single look.

Shiro, wise beyond his years, a presence that overpowered the others. HIs voice could silence the room, no matter how loud it was. Kind words in stern tones, a mask always present, the only hints of the broken boy he truly was only visible through his eyes only accessible to Keith and to Kuron.

Kuron. Shiro’s brother, the one with the bad ideas and the sly smirks, the dark to Shiro’s light. So desperately trying to be different from his twin, yet so desperately trying to be him. He hated being compared to Shiro, yet worked so hard to be able to be compared to him, the melancholy in his veins bursting through his skin in song.

Then there was Lance. Lance with the sneaky smile, who seemed to have no control over his limbs once he was out of water, Lance with the messy hair and rapid fire words. Lance who told her about his childhood in Cuba, who made her feel like a little kid again, who painted her nails as she told her all about himself, Lance who raged and felt without any restraint when she was around. Lance who guided her through the mysteries of school while she tried to guide him through the mysteries of girls.

Not that he needed to learn.

Lance was the lover boy of the swim team, flirting with girls left and right, words coated in sugar and smiles dripping with honey, a siren who lured in the wrong prey.

Because when he hid in dark corners with his newest catch, he closed his eyes and thought of short hair, sly smiles, broad shoulders, a singer's voice murmuring his name.

Because when Lance lured in the next distraction, his honey sweet smiles were meant for someone else, his sugar-coated words were never what he wanted to say. Because his sweet-nothings turned sour as he glimpsed those tantalizing broad shoulders flitting around from person to person, from hidden corner to hidden corner.

Because Lance had seen Kuron for the first time and within a week had fallen for that slippery smile and cunning charm.

_“He’s like a flickering candle and I’m a moth. It’s so tempting, but if I get too close I’ll burn,”_ He used to say.

_Kuron is the sun,_ she always thought. _And Lance is too scared of becoming Icarus._

Lance spent his time talking about how when the six of them ate in the cafeteria, it felt like the world was theirs. They ate on the top floor, the balcony, overlooking the rest of the teenagers, kings of the school.

That is, until the actual rulers came in.

Lance’s voice always turned bitter as he talked about the “rulers” of the school. Talked about them as if they had cursed his grandmother.

Zethrid with the muscles. The brute. Always down for a fight, with little fights actually fought. Everyone was too scared, too afraid of going home with green and blue bruises on their bodies, too afraid of getting on her actual bad side and ending up in the hospital. She was met with flinches and skirting looks, never with fists.

Ezor, high school chameleon. She knew everyone, but no one knew her. She was invisible, but so clearly distinct in her invisibility that no one knew what to think. Their whispers were heard by her no matter what, their thoughts no longer sacred. People were almost scared to breathe around her.

Acxa in shining armor. Allura called her that because she was the loyal one, the one who could be reasoned with. Logical, the older sister of the group. But walk on eggshells around her. Her loyalty was her greatest weapon, but her greatest weakness.

Then Narti. Lance always got a different look in his eyes when he talked about her. A look of almost… appreciation. Narti-who-sees-ghosts. Narti with the voice as loud as thunder. Allura didn’t understand the names until she learned that Narti was mute and blind.

She always thought they were cruel nicknames. Made to insult her, jab at what people considered weaknesses.

Allura told Lance about it once. He just laughed and said, “You’ll understand when you meet her.”

He never explained more.

Then there was Lotor.

Lotor the snake. Don’t fall for his charms because you’ll find that the honey dripping from his smile is actually venom. He toyed with people, he was cruel and vicious.

Allura always pictured their posse as a stereotypical bully with his harem. A big brute with fake words and a penchant for kicking puppies, arms around 4 girls.

Lance took a bite of his sandwich. “Want some?”

Allura waved him off. “No, thank you.”

“Two weeks left. Then we start our senior year and you have your first day at our school.”

Allura chewed on the inside of her lip nervously, and Lance nudged her. “Chill, Allura. You’ll be fine, you have the six of us, remember?” He took another bite of his sandwich. “Besides, everyone’s going to be too busy with their own ridiculous problems to pay much attention to you, especially if you already look like you fit in if you hang out with us.”

She hoped he was right.

The nagging voice in her head told her he wasn’t.

 

Two weeks never went by so quickly.

Then she was at the front of a shiny set of stairs, backpack slung over her shoulder as teenagers slid out of cars and walked inside. 

Keith was already there, leaning against one of the columns at the entrance, looking at the people walking in, expressionless. “Hey.”

“Hi, Keith. Where’s everyone else?”

“Pidge had some problems with her classes, Hunk went with her as moral support. Shiro and Kuron are on their way, and Lance doesn’t get here early. He sleeps in the most he can when he doesn’t have swim practice,” Keith said. “We usually wait up here in the mornings anyways.”

The rest of the morning consisted of small talk, a bout of rapid paced ranting form Pidge once she came back, a large amount of _“gaaay”_ from Pidge and Kuron whenever Shiro and Keith even interacted, reassurances for Allura from Hunk, and a cheeky joke from Lance once he go there with a minute remaining until the first bell.

The first half of the day passed by blandly, the usual first day of the year _let’s get to know each other_ chitter chatter boring, considering most of the people already knew each other and didn’t take it very seriously. Lance, ever the class clown, announced his hobby as quoting vines and dabbing, which he proceeded to do for the rest of the class period.

Luckily the bell rang before the teacher could murder Lance, because “so help me god if I hear you say yeet _one more time-.”_

Allura followed Lance and Pidge to the cafeteria, which was in a completely different building. Keith and Shiro were already there, Kuron having gone to go get the Pizza Pidge had ordered in the middle of class.

Allura pretended not to notice the way Lance’s breath hitched once Kuron came back.

Hunk huffed up the stairs a few minutes later, and Lance raised an eyebrow, swallowing his bite of pizza. “Why are you so late?”

“Mr. Rothwell gave us our partner assignments and I wanted to see if they could ever be changed,” Hunk said, sounding bitter. “And they can’t.”

“Who’d you get?”

“Rolo.”

Pidge let out a laugh. “Wow, that’s shit assignment. I’m glad I don’t have his class till next year.”

Hunk grimaced. “Hopefully things get better. He said it’ll be a team building exercise type thing.”

“Assignments?” Allura asked, glancing at Lance.

“Mr. Rothwell does this thing where he hands out partner assignments, and that’s who we’re stuck with for the rest of the damn year. Sometimes it leads to friendships! Sometimes leads to disaster. His class is infamous for being fun if you have a good partner, utter shit if you don’t because _everything_ is partner work.” Lance looked out at the cafeteria, his legs swinging from between the bars of the balcony railing like a little kid. “I just feel bad for whoever gets one of _them_ as their partners. Especially Loreal over there.”

Allura turned to look. Five people walked into the cafeteria, a little posse. They looked interesting, but she couldn’t catch that good of a look at them. “Who are they?”

“Lotor and his posse,” Keith said a bit disdainfully as the five of them got closer. Allura’s eyes widened. “ _That’s_ them?”

She had expected a brute, someone who _looked_ like a bully, big and mean surrounded by a harem of girls. Hell, from the way they talked about Lotor, she would’ve expected a literal devil before she expected… this.

Not a sleaze with his harem. No, Lotor’s posse was better equipped for the battlefield. Not a harem at all. Rather a commander with his generals, a prince with his guard.

“Yeah, that’s them,” Lance said, sneering. “Zethrid’s the big one, Ezor’s miss cheerful ponytail, Axca’s blue hair, and Narti’s the one with the cat. Lotor’s the only guy there, but he’s Mr. Luscious Locks down there if you can’t tell.”

Allura blinked.

None of them looked how she expected, She imagined a big brutish girl with dirt caked under her fingernails and ratty hair, wearing combat boots whenever she thought of Zethrid. Not a Serena Williams physique, _I would gladly let you crush me with those thighs,_ type girl wearing converse, jeans and a crop top.

She expected Ezor to be a giggly blonde, curls bouncing, skirt swaying, but instead she looked fairly inconspicuous. Much less diva-ish than the girls she had passed don her way here, faces caked with gunk. She seemed to shimmer under the cafeteria lights, just barely touched by glitter and fairy dust.

She imagined Acxa as severe and almost boring, making heart eyes at Lotor. Yes, she was serious, yes, she was severe, but she had a hint of a mischievous glint in her eye. She reminded Allura almost of Keith.

And Narti. Now she understood what Lance meant. She hadn’t even spoken to her, and she could feel her presence looming over the cafeteria. It almost seemed like she wasn’t of this earth. Like Narti-who-sees-ghosts wasn’t born of two humans, but of rust and shadows and howling winds. Like she was made in a storm.

Then there was Lotor. 

How the hell was he even human?

He was the Northern Star. The constellations danced in his eyes. He commanded the skies. Moon dust and starlight fell from his shoulders, his hair seemed to glow against his tan skin, like a comets tail made of silvery strands of ice and space magic.

“And she’s gone guys, another fallen under their spell,” Lance snarked. Allura shut her mouth, not even realizing she was gaping, face burning.

“I’m not ‘under their spell’,” she scoffed.

Lance hummed. “Just remember, just ‘cause he’s pretty doesn’t mean he’s nice.”

Allura nodded. She knew that. But she still caught herself staring every once in a while, hoping he could turn so she could see him clearer.

The bell rang, and Allura made her way to her next class, the infamous Mr. Rothwell. 

The classroom was… unusual to say the least. It had a beanbag and carpet corner which she hadn’t seen since grade school, ribbons and tapestries hanging all around, with two large screens on either side of the room and textbooks haphazardly thrown on the shelves pushed against the back wall.

Mr. Rothwell was fiddling with his computer, wearing a headset, a pen tucked behind his ear as he ran some fingers through his beard. “Don’t sit down yet please,” he said absentmindedly, not even looking up.

More students began filing in, and Allura blanched when she saw an unmistakable head of starlight walk in. He glanced around the room, barely taking her in with a twitch of his eyebrow before moving on to the next person.

Mr. Rothwell clapped his hands together as the second bell rang. “Good afternoon everybody. I hope you had a nice lunch, now let’s get this started!” His voice filled the room, the headset making it loud and clear. He spent a few minutes explaining the class like most teachers do, but Allura could hardly focus, her eyes wandering to the head of white hair in the corner of the room, glancing at his face as he listened to the teacher talk. He caught her staring once, and she just turned around, face burning.

“Now! The moment you’ve all been waiting for…”

The entire classroom immediately perked up. Allura glanced at Lotor but he still looked as unaffected by everyone as before. He looked almost bored.

“Partner assignments!” Mr. Rothwell announced. “Now remember, you guys gotta sit next to your partners, so first come first server for seats!”

Mr. Rothwell started listing off people, and Allura started praying she could be partners with Plaxum, a girl Lance was friends with, or Shay, who seemed nice from Hunk’s gushing about her.

Allura was too distracted trying to find a suitable partner to realize that her name was being called out.

“Miss Allura, you here will be with the lovely Mister Lotor,” Rothwell said. The classroom seemed to quiet down a bit, and when she realized what had just happened, her heart fell to her stomach.

_Just ‘cause he’s pretty doesn’t mean he’s nice._

God she was fucked.

Lotor raised an eyebrow, but shrugged, snagging a seat near the back of the classroom. Allura followed him, sitting down next to him silently. She could feel Shay’s gaze on her back, saw Plaxum wince as she sat down.

Allura noticed Lotor glancing at Plaxum and Shay, but he didn’t say anything.

Mr. Rothwell kept on listing off names, until the seats were filled and no more students were standing.

“Now, considering you’re going to be spending around 180 days, likely more, with your partners I want you to at least know some basic knowledge of each other. So, I’m giving you 20 minutes to learn each other’s name, birthday, favorite color, TV show, hobby, and one quirk and fun fact about yourselves.” Mr. Rothwell clicked the timer on the screen, and Allura watched the timer start. “I want it on paper too!”

Allura tapped her pen nervously.

“You start,” Lotor said.

She stared.

It was unfair. Why was his voice so attractive too? It was so smooth and melodic, who decided he won the genetic lottery?

Lotor raised an eyebrow and Allura realized she’d been staring for a while. She cleared her throat. “Yeah sure. My name’s Allura. My birthday’s January 26th, my favorite color is sky blue, my favorite TV show is Brooklyn 99, my hobby is making jewelry, and I can tie cherry stems into knots with my tongue and I moved here from London a few months ago.”

She fiddled with a strand of her hair as he wrote down the information, noticing the way he held his hair out of his face as he wrote, the rest of it shimmering and dropping stardust onto the floor, a curtain of white that draped over his shoulder. She wanted to touch it.

Lotor looked up once he was done, and Allura clicked her pen. “Your turn,” she hummed, but he didn’t look too eager.

“Lotor. My birthday’s February 30th-,”

Allura almost wrote that down before stopping and looking up at him. Lotor looked almost impressed. “Most people don’t realize until after they’ve written it down. It’s December 18th."

“How do I know you’re not lying about that one either?”

“Can’t.” He sounded exasperated. Whether it was at her or the fact he couldn’t lie, she couldn’t tell. “The teachers have our birthdays on the school database. They see it each time they take attendance, so they’d realize if someone lied about their birthday.”

Allura raised an eyebrow, but shrugged. “Favorite color?”

“Blue. Favorite TV show is Orange is the New Black-,”

 

_“Ohmygod, I love Orange is the new black!”_ some girl said, starting up a conversation with her partner. They weren’t paying attention to Lotor’s words. But he seemed to be paying attention to theirs.

 

“-my hobby is reading, I can do a flip and no I don’t dye my hair.”

Allura wrote the answers down skeptically. All of them were generic answers or answers similar to other people, except for the ones that _had_ to be his own, like his name and birthday. 

It seemed he didn’t want her to get to know anything about him after all.

Allura didn’t really say anything else as the timer counted down to 0. Lotor didn’t really seem to want to have a conversation anyways.

Once the 20 minutes were up, Mr. Rothwell came to pick up the papers and started class, explaining more of the curriculum. 

Allura hoped her distractedness wasn’t obvious.

The staring too.

She couldn’t keep her eyes on Mr. Rothwell, the star next to her too bright.

She noticed how he always had one stubborn strand of hair in his face, even when he pulled his hair back to try and put it in a ponytail. She wanted to curl it around her finger. To tuck it behind his ear.

He glanced at her once he finished tying his hair back, pulling that one strand out of his face, even though it fell right back to where it was. Allura squeaked as she was caught staring. She looked down at her desk, face burning but she could feel those brilliant blue eyes on her face, and she hid herself a bit by letting her hair fall and block her face.

The bell rang after a while, and Allura was both relieved and disappointed. She grabbed her backpack, glancing up at Lotor as he swung his bag over his shoulder. Even _that_ seemed surreal.

He walked out of the classroom, Allura not far behind, starting to head up the stairs to her next class but Lotor was distracting even in the crowded halls. She almost ran into someone as he walked away, earning a disgruntled huff and middle finger from the person and one last glance from Lotor as he turned to see the commotion.

She felt her face turn red again, and she hurried away.

God she was so fucked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check me out at thepiedownthehall.tumblr.com


	2. Adronitis

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A little bit of bonding here and there, a little bit of confusion everywhere.

 

Allura spent the next few weeks shoving down the puppy crush she had on Lotor.

 

It was hard though. He was captivating. Everything he did, everything he said, every little movement was like magic. Like a star beat in his chest instead.

 

She just wished he was a bit friendlier.

 

Every conversation they had just left her more confused and left more in the dark than before. She knew nothing of his life, anything he told her she already knew or weren’t exactly the most insightful things ever. She didn’t even know who his parents were until Lance told her.

 

Zarkon and Haggar, two very prominent, very powerful people. Very rich. Their names were known by the entire town, praised and complimented. But behind closed doors there where whispers, secrets flitting to and fro about the man that ended up in the hospital after going to meet with Zarkon, the woman that ended up without a house after a conversation with Haggar. They were kings of the city.

 

 _“The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,”_ Keith always said. _“I don’t trust Lotor one bit, not with parents like that.”_

 

Allura always shoved those thoughts aside. Surely Lotor couldn’t be _that_ bad, right?

 

In fact, he seemed like he could fit in with the rest of her friends just fine. She saw him in the halls with his friends, generals she called them, smiling his tell-tale wicked grin. He seemed to glow a bit more with them, seemed to relax. She caught herself longing to be one of them at times.

 

It seemed like Allura was always blushing when she was around Lotor. If he spoke to her, she had to fight to keep the blood rushing to her face, especially when they were in class and he had to lean in a bit to whisper to her so they wouldn’t get caught talking.

 

Then came the first project of Mr. Rothwell’s class. It was the day it was due, and she was too busy trying to keep herself from turning into a tomato to realize that Lotor actually seemed a bit… worried.

 

“I’m sorry, I couldn’t hear you,” Allura whispered back, leaning in a bit closer to Lotor so he could hear her over Mr. Rothwell’s rapid fire lesson. He sighed, running a hand through his hair. Not unusual for him, but the tension in his shoulders betrayed the stress he felt.

 

“You edited the video for the project, right?”

 

Allura tilted her head in confusion and he seemed to pale a bit. “I thought you were supposed to do that,” she said, a small ball of dread forming in the pit of his stomach.

 

“No!” he hissed. “I was doing the paper, you were doing the video!”

 

She put her head in her hands. Projects were worth 30 percent of their grade, she couldn’t be failing a class this early in the year. “I did the paper,” she said through her hands, and she could hear Lotor let out a small groan of exasperation.

 

“Perfect,” he murmured, tapping his fingers on the desk. “I’ll fix it.”

 

She spent the rest of the day worrying about the project. Maybe they could ask for an extension? Maybe they could try and get extra credit, or piece together a video by tomorrow? Lance had to call her name at least three times before she finally realized he was talking to her.

 

“The bell is going to ring in a few minutes, you can go talk to Rothwell then,” Lance reassured her. “I’ll go with you, don’t worry. We’ll get it fixed.”

 

Allura nodded, a grateful smile on her face. After a few minutes she found herself in Mr. Rothwell’s room, but Lotor had beat her to it. And he looked _really_ stressed.

 

“There has to be _something_ we can do,” Lotor said, his voice low. Mr. Rothwell shook his head.

 

“I’m sorry Lotor, but this was a _group_ project and-,”

 

“Mr. Rothwell we _did_ do it as a group.”

  
“Splitting the project up between the group isn’t teamwork. If you two had actually worked as a group then this wouldn’t have happened.”

 

Lotor ran a hand through his hair, and Lance leaned over to whisper in Allura’s ear. “I’ve never seen Loreal this worried before,” he whispered. Allura hummed in agreement.

 

“We each agreed on which part to work on. Can we at least turn it in for partial credit?” Lotor asked, crossing his arms, but the action was more distressed than angry. Mr. Rothwell shook his head. “It was specifically a team project, and you didn’t complete it. The grade period ends today, which means I can’t put any more grades in tomorrow. I’m sorry, you’re going to have to keep the 0, but if you turn in the project I can put in extra credit for the next grading period.”

 

Allura winced. This was going to screw up her grade so badly.

 

Lotor looked like he was about to scream. “Fine,” he said stiffly, and grabbed his stuff. “Thank you, Mr. Rothwell.”

 

He walked out the door, Allura and Lance waving at their teacher as they walked out behind Lotor. The three of them headed out the front door, where his generals waited for him. Narti seemed to stand up a bit straighter as she heard their footsteps, and signed something to him that Allura couldn’t understand. Lotor just took a deep breath seeming to want to say something, then realized Allura and Lance were behind him.

 

He narrowed his eyes, turning to Allura.  “Leave the project to me,” he said roughly. “I’ll get it finished by tomorrow, I have the footage.”

 

Allura blinked. “Mr. Rothwell just said-,”

 

“Clearly we can’t work together if you can’t follow some simple instructions. Leave the work to me for the rest of the year, I can’t afford to have my grades plummet just because you can’t work with me.”

 

_I’m sorry, what?_

 

“Can’t work with you? This would’ve been so much easier had you just talked to me, had we actually worked together like _we were supposed to._ I thought you knew what you were doing when you told me how to work on the project, but clearly I was wrong,” Allura snapped.

 

Lotor stiffened, and Zethrid shifted, tilting her head at Allura. The rest of the girls glanced at Allura, looking unimpressed and a bit angry. Narti looked like she could see right through Allura, see into her very soul, and it made her uneasy.

 

“I told you what to do,” Lotor said, and the calmness in his voice made her get angrier. He was supposed to be angry, he wasn’t supposed to be all cool and composed. It was his fault that this stupid argument started in the first place. “It’s not my fault you can’t understand clear instructions.”

 

Allura was at a loss for words, so she snapped her mouth shut and turned on her heel, fuming as she walked down the steps, Lance right behind her.

 

“Acxa, I hate to ask this but can I stay at your house?” she heard Lotor say quietly. She ignored it, and the rest of the conversation was lost in the buzz of the other kids waiting at the front of the school.

 

“God, what a dick,” Lance scoffed, crossing his arms. Allura tapped her finger angrily against her leg before, huffing and stomping her foot like a little kid, running her hands through her hair. “I can’t _believe_ him!” she snapped indignantly. “Can’t understand clear instructions? I understood them, it’s a simple mistake, I got confused, not everyone can be as oh so _perfect_ as he thinks he is.”

 

Lance just listened to her ramble, walking with her towards where Coran usually waited. “He’s a prick, what he says doesn’t matter. Besides, look on the bright side, he’s going to be doing all the work, so you’ll get some free time,” Lance pointed out, stopping as they got to where Coran was waiting in the car.

 

Allura stopped, eyes narrowing in determination. “No. Screw that. I’m going to take the projects into my own hands, I can’t trust that he won’t screw something up. It’s _my_ grade too,” she said.

 

Lance raised an eyebrow. “... But if both of you turn something different in, won’t Mr. Rothwell know and then keep on failing you?”

 

“I’ll make sure that doesn’t happen, don’t worry,” she said, smiling. “I’ll fix it. I’ll see you tomorrow, Lance.”

 

Lance hummed, not sounding convinced, but waved anyways as she got into the car. “See you, ‘Llura.”

  


Her grades plummeted.

 

Lotor and Allura could hardly work together even during class. Their projects ended up disasters, and Lotor was getting snappier and more withdrawn as their grades got lower, Allura just as pissy. Eventually Mr. Rothwell got fed up with their arguments when Lotor just walked out the door after a particularly irritable argument, with the excuse of going to the bathroom. Allura wanted to pull her hair out, and when he came back, looking unfairly composed and calm, Mr. Rothwell told them to meet him after class.

 

Allura didn’t want to show up, but she doubted that would be a good idea. She leaned on a desk as she waited after the bell rang, looking frustrated while Lotor stood outside the door, talking to Ezor.

 

“...Axca can’t… parents aren’t… can I?” Lotor said, Allura only catching a few words of the conversation. Ezor nodded, then shooed him away, motioning inside the room, glancing at Allura and Mr. Rothwell before she walked off. Lotor ran a hand through his hair, and Allura found herself mesmerized by the way it seemed to glimmer in the light. Then she mentally kicked herself. _He’s an ass, Allura. You can’t go around getting another puppy crush on someone who’s an asshole, no matter how pretty he is._

 

Lotor glanced at Allura, his eyes blazing through her, and she just stared right back at him. He turned to Mr. Rothwell, who was waiting patiently.

 

“It has been brought to my attention that you two don’t seem to know how to work together,” he said, leaning against his desk. “I’m sure both of you have noticed that your grades have been plummeting. You haven’t been turning in work at the level that I know both of you are capable of reaching, and you haven’t been turning in group projects _at all_.”

 

Allura opened her mouth to protest, and he held up his hand to shush her. “I know you’ve been turning something in, but both of you have been submitting something entirely different, which clearly tells me that you haven’t been working together, likely not even talking to each other to plan something out for your project.”

 

Lotor just stayed quiet, crossing his arms, looking incredibly withdrawn. Allura almost wanted to ask him if he was okay, because he clearly didn’t look it. Mr. Rothwell sighed. “You can get your grades fixed, as long as I see that you guys are actually working together to fix your grades. You’ll have to come in early every morning until i’m satisfied with your teamwork.”

 

Allura blinked, furrowing her brows. Lotor just glanced at Mr. Rothwell, his usual nonchalant demeanor carefully put in place, eyebrow slightly raised, arms crossed, eyes focusing on the man before him but looking almost bored, mouth kind of downturned.

 

“Is that understood?”

 

Lotor hummed in agreement, and Allura nodded slowly. Mr. Rothwell seemed satisfied. “That’s all then,” he said.

 

Lotor raised an eyebrow, then walked out of the room, thanking his teacher quietly. Allura went after him, waving to Mr. Rothwell as she walked through the door.

 

“Are you going to be coming in the morning?” Allura asked skeptically.

 

“Why wouldn’t I?” Lotor said stiffly, adjusting the strap of his bag on his shoulder. He still looked incredibly withdrawn and uncomfortable, and again, Allura was tempted to ask if something was wrong.

 

“Well from your past actions, I would assume you would still try to do it all on your own and ignore what Mr. Rothwell said.”

 

Lotor raised an eyebrow, making her feel like she had just asked the stupidest question ever. “Why would I disobey Mr. Rothwell again?” He shook his head. “I did it before and look where it got me.”

 

Allura blinked. That wasn’t the answer she was expecting. Lotor sighed, and kept on walking to the front of the school. “Be there tomorrow morning,” he said quietly. “I need to get my grades up, and if you’re not there then I can’t. Please.”

 

Allura’s breath hitched. “O-okay,” she said, surprised. That wasn’t the answer she was expecting at all. “Yeah, i’ll be there tomorrow morning.”

 

Lotor nodded. “Alright then.” He walked past her, opening the doors to the outside. Allura was still standing in place, trying to process his words, because that didn’t seem asshole-y at all. She watched Lotor walk down the stairs, and greet Ezor before they both slipped into his car. It wasn’t even a flashy car, and it surprised her. It was a car that you could clearly pick out in a crowded parking lot, an old classic mustang, a dark blue color, but she had expected some sort of supercar or an expensive sports car. Something that screamed money. But it fit him. It wasn’t forgettable, not at all, but it wasn’t loud and brash. Just like Lotor.

 

Lotor drove off,  Allura still staring after it, looking mildly idiotic. Coran’s honk startled her out of her daze. She walked down the steps, trying to hide the flush on her cheeks as she got into the car. Coran smiled at her. “Is it that Lotor fellow again?”

 

Allura shrugged, and Coran shook his head. “I thought you said you didn’t have feelings for him anymore.”

 

“I don’t,” she clarified. “He’s just… interesting. Different from what I imagined.”

 

Coran hummed. “As long as you don’t end up getting your heart broken.”

 

“I don’t have feelings for him Coran, why would my heart end up getting broken?!”

 

“I know you don’t have feelings for him. But that could change very easily,” Coran said knowingly, driving off.

 

Allura just shook it off as teasing. She doubted she would end up falling for him, for his starlight and space magic. For his comet’s tail hair and night sky eyes. For his constellation skin and moonlight eyelashes.

 

Okay, so she might still be a tiny bit attracted to him.

 

Allura was up early the next morning, walking up to Mr. Rothwell’s room, pinning her hair back into a bun. She walked through the door, noticing that Lotor was already there, looking blankly at his phone as he waited. Like his mind wasn’t even in this realm.

 

Lotor looked up at her as she walked in, putting his phone back in his pocket. Mr. Rothwell finished chewing his bite of food. “Okay. First we’re going to start off small, so you guys can learn how to trust each other, because this seems to be a problem between you two.”

 

Lotor cocked an eyebrow. “And how are we supposed to do that?”

 

“The easiest way there is. Trust fall.”

 

Allura furrowed her brow, and Lotor sighed, looking like he was going to say something before Mr. Rothwell cut him off. “People all over go up to random strangers and trust them enough to catch them. You two aren’t random strangers, you two actually know each other, you sit next to each other, you have to trust each other to actually work together. So yes, you are going to do the trust fall.”

 

Both of them glanced at each other, looking a bit uncomfortable. Mr. Rothwell herded them out of the room. “Now shoo, go do what you have to do, let me finish my breakfast in peace. But I want you to show me you made progress.”

 

Lotor got to his feet, heading out the door with his hands in his pockets. Allura set her stuff down then followed him to an empty hallway, where he turned to her. “You first?” he asked, pulling his hands out of his pockets. Allura nodded.

 

She turned her back to him, but she just rubbed her neck, before taking a deep breath and falling backwards, before her eyes widened and she caught herself. Lotor let out a sigh, and she turned to him, looking a bit embarrassed. “Sorry,” she said. “I just-,”  
  
“It’s fine, Allura. I would be more surprised if you actually trusted me from the start,” Lotor said, running a hand through his hair. Allura nodded, turning her back to him again, letting herself fall.

 

And once again caught herself, stumbling backwards. Lotor reached out to stop her from falling, and Allura found herself hyper aware of his hand on her arm, another one on her back. They were strong and steady, his fingers long and nimble. She straightened out, clearing her throat, and Lotor pulled his hands back.

 

Allura took a deep breath, turning to fall back on Lotor again. It took her another 3 minutes to finally be able to trust Lotor to catch her.  
  
Lotor was looking a bit awkward at this point. This had been taking a while, and Allura was starting to get a bit uncomfortable herself. So she took a deep breath, turned, and just fell back, hoping he would catch her. Trusting he would catch her.

 

She let out a small oomph when she fell back against his chest, hearing a small whimper. When she looked up at him, he had a small wince on his face that he quickly wiped off as soon as he noticed she was looking. She looked back down at her legs, a bit embarrassed.

 

Allura could feel her face turn red. He was warm. And he smelled good, really good. She couldn’t put her finger on what it was, but she liked it.  
  
She got even redder when she realized that his chest was all lean muscle, sturdy and strong. While it was obvious beforehand that he wasn’t out of shape, she hadn’t expected him to be _this_ muscular. She looked up at him again, and Lotor cocked an eyebrow. She felt her face start burning a bit more.  


Lotor helped her up, Allura working furiously to hide her blush. She felt like his hands were going to leave marks behind, large handprints painted in silver glittering starlight. Allura cleared her throat, brushing off her shirt. “So… now you?” she said, raising an eyebrow. Lotor shifted on his feet, looking uncomfortable. “I guess so.” He sounded uncertain.

 

It ended up being a disaster. He could barely even let himself fall, much less let her catch him. The bell ended up ringing before they could do anything.

 

The two of them walked to class in silence. Allura was biting at her nail, and old habit she had as a little girl that had come back when her parents had died. Were they going to have to keep on doing this tomorrow? It seemed like Mr. Rothwell expected it to be a one time thing.

 

“Go, get to class,” was the first thing Mr. Rothwell said. “Did you two manage to get anything done?”

 

“Yeah, we both managed to catch each other,” Lotor said quickly, and Allura gaped at him. He didn’t meet her eye, just looking at their teacher. Mr. Rothwell raised an eyebrow, looking skeptical. She expected him to say something, but instead he just shrugged. “Alright then. I expect the two of you here tomorrow morning. Now go to your first period, I don’t want you to be late.”

 

They grabbed their stuff, walking out of the classroom. Unsurprisingly, Lotor’s generals -Lance used to make fun of her for calling them that, now the name stuck- were waiting for him at the bottom of the stairs.

 

“Why did you lie?” she asked quietly.

 

“Because I already trust you enough,” he said simply. “See you in class.”

 

Allura blinked. “Y-yeah. See you later.”

 

She stared after him as he walked down the stairs, greeting his friends as they walked to class.

 

He was an enigma, and Allura wanted to figure him out.

 

A few hours later, and she was at lunch, barely focusing on her food.

 

Not like it was a good lunch anyways. _Lasagna Special_ it said on the board at the line. Lance had said that at least 45% of the school had stayed home with food poisoning the day after they had served the concoction of fake cheese, what might be meat, and “healthy” noodles last time.

 

“Here, I got you food from the food trucks,” Lance said, sitting down next to her, looking out at the crowd, putting his legs between the bars of the railing. He always sat like that. He said he felt like he was on the edge of a cliff, and that any little thing could send him toppling down, down, down, down, into a forest of teenagers and mystery sauce.

 

Allura smiled, thanking him as she grabbed the box of wings and fries, putting them on her lap as she looked out at the chattering crowd. Popping a fry into her mouth, she leaned back a bit, scanning everywhere.

 

“Who are you looking for? You know the rest of the gang isn’t going to be coming. They decided to go out to eat, remember?” Lance said, interrupting her search.

 

Allura stammered, trying to find a good excuse. She hadn’t realized who she was looking for until Lance had asked, and telling him that she was looking for _Lotor_ of all people wouldn’t be a good idea.

 

She sighed. She excelled at bad ideas though, so she might as well tell him now.

 

“I was looking for Lotor,” she muttered.

 

Lance almost choked on his Powerade. “Lotor? I thought you hated that asshole?”

 

Allura shrugged. “He’s not as bad as I thought,” she said honestly. “He’s actually kind of nice.”

 

“Pantene commercial has never been nice once since i’ve met him.” Lance’s voice was skeptical, almost judgemental, and Allura didn’t like it.

 

“Have you ever had a conversation with him?” She cocked an eyebrow at him, looking a bit irritated. Lance looked down. “No, but-,”

 

“Then how do you know he’s rude?”

 

“He’s an asshole to everyone around him!”

 

“I haven’t actually seen him be mean to anyone.” Allura ran a hand through her hair. “Well okay no, I have seen him be mean to people, but not just for the sake of it. They’ve been horrible to him and he just retaliates.”

 

Lance shook his head in disbelief. “He’s like the diva of the school, of course he’s mean to people just for the sake of it.”

 

Allura looked away. “Fine. Whatever you say.”

 

Lance sighed. “Look, i’m sorry Allura. I didn’t mean to make you upset, it’s just I haven’t seen him do anything that makes him look like a good person.”

 

“I’ve told you how our grades have been dreadful in Rothwell’s class because of our lack of teamwork, right?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Mr. Rothwell told us to come in the morning to get work done so we could get our grades up. I thought he wasn’t going to come, but he did. Not only that, he basically begged me to be here this morning. He wasn’t mean about it, he wasn’t cocky or an asshole. He was just pleading,” Allura said quietly, glancing at Lance, before she kept on going.

 

“Then today. We did trust falls in the morning, and he wasn’t mean about it either. He didn’t say it was childish or anything, he just seemed uncomfortable. And then when he told Mr. Rothwell that both of us did the trust fall, when he didn’t do it, I thought he actually did find it childish.” She played with a stray strand of hair, looking down at her lap.  “But when we started walking to class he said that he didn’t need to do it. He said he already trusted me enough.”

 

Lance stared at Allura, eyes wide. “You’re kidding right?”

 

Allura scoffed. “No i’m not _kidding_ , Lance. He actually said that.”  


He hummed, still seeming a bit skeptical. “I hope he’s being genuine, then,” Lance said, looking out over the cafeteria, his legs swinging from the edge of the balcony, and Allura could see him focus on something in the crowd. She looked out, following his gaze. And there he was, Lotor, his mask carefully slid back into place.

 

She wished she knew why he had a mask in the first place. What made him want to hide himself from everyone else?

 

His snake-like smirk, his sharp eyes, his smooth words. Everything was made to catch you off guard, to make you question his sincerity, to make you think _stay away._

 

“Yeah. So do I,” she murmured.

 

Days passed, and Allura got to know Lotor a lot better. She learned his actual favorite color- “ _You said blue.” “Indigo is not that far from blue.”-,_ his actual favorite TV show -Sherlock-, and some of his actual hobbies -while he wasn’t lying when he said reading, he had a lot more interesting hobbies, like photography and chemistry.

 

But whenever she asked about his house, his parents, anything that came anywhere near his personal life, he always gave vague answers, avoided the questions, or answered her with something that just left her more confused than before.

 

That wasn’t even including the conversations she had managed to overhear with the generals.  


He stayed over at their houses a _lot_ , even to the point that Allura asked them if they were all dating. Zethrid had laughed in her face.

 

_“Us? Dating him? Not even in our wildest dreams, princess. That would be ridiculous.”_

 

_“And weird,” Ezor chimed in, shuddering._

 

Allura had walked away more confused than before. They didn’t seem like the type to have slumber parties.

 

_“You can’t stay away from them forever, Lotor.”_

 

_“I can hold out for as long as I need to.”_

 

Lotor had immediately shut up as soon as he saw Allura watching them.

 

_“He’s not going to be able to keep on paying, you know that. Whatever money he’s getting is running out.”_

 

_“That’s why we have to help him as much as we can. He’ll pay us back, you know he will.”_

 

The generals had walked away before she could hear anything else.

 

_“Lotor you have to call them, if you don’t-,”_

 

_“I’m fine, I don’t have to call anyone. Their reputation has to be squeaky clean anyways, remember?”_

 

Allura had been tugged away by Lance before she managed to catch more of the conversation.

 

That’s what she had been thinking about when Lotor almost ran into a wall. Allura yelped, grabbing his shoulder before he could. “Sorry!”

 

Lotor reached to take off the blindfold, giving her a smile, but she had caught his wince when she grabbed his shoulder. “It’s fine,” he said, waving her off. “You didn’t actually let me run into the wall, which is what this is about, isn’t it?”

 

Mr. Rothwell had sent them out on another ridiculous mission: walk around the school, one of them blindfolded and completely at the mercy of the other. So far none of them had run into something, even if they did have a few close calls.

 

Allura laughed, nodding. “Yeah,” she said, glancing at her hand as Lotor rolled his shoulder out of her grasp. He looked tired, his usual glow dimmed a lot, and he was a bit stiff, his movements stilted and a bit awkward. It looked wrong on him.

 

“Are you okay?” she asked and he nodded.

 

“Just a bit sore.”

 

“Stretch out then.” Allura pulled her arms over her shoulders, sort of showing him. Lotor raised an eyebrow. “I don’t-,”

 

“Stop saying no and just try it.” Allura crossed her arms. Lotor sighed. “I will. Let’s start heading back, yeah?”

 

Allura rolled her eyes, but nodded in agreement.

 

They made their way back to Mr. Rothwell’s room, grabbing their bags, waving at Mr. Rothwell as they made their way out. Allura turned towards the door, heading out in front of Lotor. “So I’ll see you tomorrow then?” she said, turning to face him before almost dropping her bag.

 

He was stretching his arms over his head, rolling his neck, but that wasn’t what she was staring at. She was staring at the bare skin that was showing as his shirt hiked up when he stretched.

 

What the hell had happened to him?

 

It was more bruising than it was normal skin, purple, green, yellow, blue, black, all blossoming on his abdomen like a ghastly painting.

 

“Lotor what the hell happened?” she asked, and Lotor immediately put his arms down, whispering something that sounded eerily like _fuck._

 

“Nothing important,” he said smoothly. Allura raised an eyebrow. “Lotor…”  


“Just drop it, alright?” He fidgeted with the strap of his bag. “Nothing important happened. It’s fine. It’ll be gone in a couple of days anyways.”

 

He walked away before she could say anything else.


	3. Gnossienne

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Look at this? What is this called? Angst? With fluff?
> 
> Discoveries, discoveries.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry this chapter took so long, I was out of town with no access to wifi for two weeks and then immediately afterwards school started, but it's also the longest chapter to date, so yay?

Grey grey grey.

 

It was grey and beautiful.

 

Allura was laying down in the grass of the football field, her hair spilling out around her like a little cloud, staring up at the endless sky.

 

She could feel the soft prickling of the turf on her back, her jacket thrown off somewhere to the side.

 

It was early morning. She had gotten to school, ready to keep on doing whatever Mr. Rothwell was going to tell her and Lotor to do now. But Lotor wasn’t there, and she couldn’t exactly do something if he didn’t show up, and after a while of waiting her teacher just told her to go relax.

 

So there she was. The roll of thunder filled the air, feeling like a warm blanket, a promise from the skies.

 

She wondered where Lotor was.

 

He had hardly talked to her since she had seen his bruising, had seemed more distant as every morning passed. She tried bringing it up once more, and he had ignored her.

 

Allura hated it. He had just started opening up. She had just started being able to talk to him, they had started making progress.

 

And then he fled at the first sign of danger. The mask came back, and it was harder to peel away than before.

 

Sometimes she wished he had never dropped the act. Every little crack, every little chip just left her wanting to know more, and more and more, she wanted to leave no stone unturned. She just turned the right stone over too early and Lotor had fallen back into his more-than-human demeanor, his vulnerability gone so quickly she almost thought she had dreamt it.

 

“Hey, princess. It’s going to start raining soon. You should get off the field.”

 

Allura turned her head, and Zethrid waved at her. Ezor and Acxa were with her, Ezor picking at her nails while Acxa just gazed at Allura.

 

She turned back to stare at the sky, closing her eyes. “Let it rain,” she said. “Let it pour. It’s better than staying dry. It’s more alive.”

 

“Don’t you have friends to go hang out with?” Ezor asked dryly.

 

“Don’t be rude,” Acxa scolded. Allura laughed.

 

“I do. But I like staying like this. It’s…” she drifted off. She didn’t think they’d understand what she meant anyways.

 

“Peaceful.” Acxa hopped over the railing and walking over to her. “That’s what Lotor would say.” She sat down next to Allura, leaning back on her arms. Ezor looked up as the first drop of rain fell, and she pulled her jacket tighter around herself. “I’ll meet up with you guys later. I’m going to the front to wait for Narti, otherwise i’m going to get a cold,” she said. Zethrid snorted. “That’s what you get for wearing your cheer skirt to school on a cloudy day instead of your sweats.”

 

Ezor flipped her off as she turned on her heel to walk into the cafeteria.

 

Allura looked back up at the sky, closing her eyes as the rain started pattering down steadily. The smell of petrichor and the coolness of the rain. It was her favorite thing in the entire world.

 

“Does Lotor usually get a lot of bruises?” she asked quietly, and she felt Acxa shift beside her.

 

“Did Lotor trust you enough to show you those bruises in the first place?” Acxa said quietly, and Allura opened her eyes, turning to look at her. Her eyes were a bit cold. Protective. The noble demon, the white knight. A savior, a warrior, a lion.

 

Allura looked away, and that was enough of an answer for Acxa. “The only way you’re going to find out anything about Lotor is from Lotor himself.”

 

Zethrid huffed from where she was leaning on the railing. “We don’t betray Lotor. If he wants you to know something about him he’ll tell you. Otherwise sorry, princess. You won’t get shit out of us.”

 

“Yeah,” Allura muttered. “Got it.”

 

Acxa hummed, and got up, brushing her hair out of her face. “Nothing personal, really. You actually seem pretty cool. Lotor certainly thinks highly of you. But it’s just how things work with us,” she said, tucking her hands in her pockets. “We’ll see you around, Allura.” She walked over to Zethrid, hopping over the railing again.

 

Allura sat up, shaking her head. “Wait!”

 

Acxa and Zethrid stopped in their tracks, turning to her. Allura got to her feet, dusting off her jeans as she ran over to where they were waiting. “Can you tell Lotor I was looking for him?”

 

Zethrid raised an eyebrow, but Acxa merely nodded. “Yeah, i’ll tell him whenever I see him.”

 

Then they walked off, up the stadium steps towards the front of the school.

 

They never got the chance to tell him because he didn’t come to school all day.

 

And instantly, mouths started to run and rumors started to fly through the school. Allura felt like she could reach up and pluck one out of the cloud of mutterings, unraveling it and finding that each rumor was more ridiculous than the last.

 

_“I heard he got into a car crash.”_

 

_“Well I heard his dad’s head of the mafia and he’s training Lotor.”_

 

_“Maybe they moved away?”_

 

_“Nah, he eloped. Ran away with that girl he was making out with against the lockers last week.”_

 

_“Shut the fuck up, he wasn’t making out with anyone last week, and you know it. Just because that comes out in your wet dreams doesn’t mean that it actually happened you dumbass.”_

 

She was so tempted to punch each and every single person who she heard with his name in their mouths.

 

Why did anyone else care who he was making out with or who he wasn’t making out with? Why did anyone care if he eloped or not? He wasn’t dead, he wasn’t a criminal, he was fine.

 

The generals were hounded with questions and they ignored each and every single one of them,

 

Allura finally lost her patience during lunch. She was watching the generals walk through the cafeteria, heads held high. Allura knew they could hear every person whisper as they walked past, knew they see every person turn their heads to tell some other ridiculous rumor to their friends. And still, they kept their backs straight, their stride confident.

 

Pidge snorted. “What do you think happened?”

 

“Got drunk yesterday night, fucked someone, then decided not to go to school with a killer hangover,” Kuron said. Lance snorted. “Road trip to Las Vegas.”

 

“He found out he was the prince of some foreign country, Princess Diaries style,” Keith drawled.

 

“Guys he’s probably just sick,” Shiro said, before getting a small smile. “Some weird, new illness. Really contagious.”

 

Hunk let out a little chuckle. “Maybe he’s actually an alien and was sent back to Mars.”

 

Allura slammed her water bottle down. “He’s probably just absent, so will you shut up?” she snapped.

 

Everyone fell silent. Lance coughed awkwardly. “Sorry ‘Llura. You’re probably right, maybe he just got a cold.”

 

She rolled her eyes, wrapping up her sandwich and shoving it into her backpack. “I’ll see you in class,” she said, voice stony, making her way down the steps. She had lost her appetite anyways.

 

The day passed, and Allura tried to tune out any rumors about Lotor.

 

It was hard though. They hovered over her head like a dreary cloud of lies and bullshit. She stayed ticked off for the rest of the day. Allura could hardly imagine how annoyed the generals were.

 

She wondered if Lotor knew about all this.

 

If he did, she wondered how he felt. If he laughed at the fact that people thought he was an alien when he was clearly a star.

 

Allura realized she had never heard him laugh.

 

She wondered if his laugh was as shimmery as the rest of him.

 

The next morning was just as grey as the day before, and Allura hoped that didn’t mean anything about the day ahead. While she might like rainy days, the grey of the skies ended up dampening the mood of those who didn’t.

 

She hoped that Lotor would be there this morning. If she heard any more rumors about what happened, she might just smack someone.

 

But he wasn’t there. He wasn’t there in the morning, and she could feel Mr. Rothwell’s disappointment and concern. Lotor was never absent, he was never late to class, always early in the mornings when Allura came in still groggy, the sleep still addling her mind.

 

And now, gone two days in a row?

 

Allura sighed, grabbing her backpack, waving at Mr. Rothwell before heading out towards the field again. Hopefully it would start raining again.

 

And that’s when she saw him, his bright starlight hair, but his head was down, gait stiff and quick. He avoided anyone who tried talking to him, skirted around anyone who even glanced at him.

 

She rushed to catch up to him, calling out his name, and he stiffened, shoulders tense. Like a cobra ready to strike, like a mouse ready to run, he was all of it.

 

Allura walked next to him, struggling to match his long limbed pace. “You weren’t there in the morning,” she said, wanting to tug on his shirt to make him slow down. It was like he was running, running running running away from her, and she didn’t know _why._ She wanted to know _why._

 

Lotor shrugged. “I’m not coming to school again,” he said stiffly. “I just needed to talk to my teachers about it. Catch up on what I need to catch up.”

 

“People are starting to talk,” she murmured, tripping over her own feet. One of his long strides was worth two of hers, and she was practically jogging at this point. Rain started pattering down again, and he finally looked somewhere other than the floor, glancing up at the sky.

 

The grey light danced over his face, making him look pale and dejected, and Allura almost gasped, catching something on his cheek that looked eerily like a bruise before he stared back down at the cement, kicking away a stray rock.

 

“Lotor wh-,”

 

“If I stay they’ll talk more than if I leave.” He shoved his hands in his pockets.

 

Allura tilted her head. “Why would they-,”

 

“It’s the lesser of two evils to leave and have some ridiculous rumors spread about me than to stay.” Lotor’s voice was cold, angry, tired. The glow in him seemed to have dimmed, barely flickering in his chest. Allura stopped in her tracks.

 

“And what if you stayed?”

 

Lotor stopped walking, standing a few feet away from her, not meeting her eyes. The silence between them was interrupted only by the habitual murmur of other teenagers around them and the pitter patter of raindrops bursting on the cement.

 

“Doesn’t matter,” he muttered, and Allura sighed, opening her mouth to try and convince him to stay when she finally took him in. She was too busy trying to catch up to him to have seen his state earlier.

 

He looked horrible.

 

His jeans were ripped. He never wore ripped jeans, in fact Allura knew those jeans. Those were the ones he had worn the day they did the trust fall, and they were perfectly fine then. His clothing seemed too big for his body, and he was hunched over, as if it was a struggle just to stand up. Even his hair was in his face. He hated having his hair in his face.

 

A god of the stars, broken and brought to a miserable earth, and Allura wanted to know who had taken him off his throne.

 

She wanted to tear them apart limb from limb, wanted to make them beg for mercy. She had seen that look, had seen that posture before.

 

Allura had seen it in the mirror every time she had woken up wishing she was anywhere else but on this earth. She had seen it the day after the funeral, as she looked in the mirror too apathetic to eat, to cry, to breathe.

 

Remembering that terrified her.

 

It terrified her to see that same expression on his face. The same emptiness in his eyes.

 

She didn’t want him alone like that. She didn’t want him alone when he could hardly remember to tuck his hair behind his ear, when he could hardly remember to put the mask over his face when it was second nature for him.

 

Because she didn’t know what she would’ve done if Coran hadn’t been there to help her, and she didn’t want Lotor to lose himself in his mind the way she could have. The way she almost did.

 

“Fine. If it doesn’t matter, then I’ll go with you.”

 

Lotor raised an eyebrow. “What are you talking about?”

 

“I’m going with you. I’ll skip class too, I don’t mind.”

“Why?”

“Because I don’t want you to be alone.”

 

Lotor looked surprised. Confused. Like he couldn’t imagine someone caring for him and it made Allura’s heart break a little bit more. She wasn’t particularly close to him, not at all. But she still cared for him. She still liked seeing him smile, even if she didn’t get to see it much. Not a genuine one at least.

 

“You’re not going to convince me otherwise,” Allura said, crossing her arms.

 

Lotor sighed. “Fine. Whatever.”

 

Allura caught up to him, looking up at him a bit expectantly. She hadn’t really realized how tall he was until know. She only barely came up to his shoulder, and her boots had a slight heel. He could reach the clouds.

 

Maybe that’s why he glowed. The moonlight got caught in his hair.

 

Maybe he was normal once. She would’ve liked to see that.

 

Lotor walked down the steps, away from the parking lot. Allura frowned. “Didn’t you bring your car?”

 

He shook his head. “Too much of a hassle,” he said, and didn’t explain anything else, leaving Allura ridiculously confused, but she knew better than to ask. He seemed more closed off than usual. She would just be wasting her time. She wished she had brought an umbrella though. At least a jacket.

 

“Where are we going then?” she asked, tucking her hair behind her ear. Lotor looked down at her. “I don’t know if you’ve eaten, but i’m starving. There’s this cafe not far from here with some pretty good breakfast sandwiches.”

 

Allura smiled. “Yeah, let’s go.”

 

It was a five minute walk to the cafe, most of it spent in silence until the rain picked up. Lotor looked up at the clouds. “We’re almost there anyways,” he said, tugging at his jacket a little, almost like he wanted to offer it to her. Allura put a hand on his arm. “It’s fine, Lotor. I’ll be fine, we can wait for the rain to stop once we get there.”

 

“Are you sure?” he asked, brow furrowed. Allura nodded. “Yeah. You said we’re almost there anyways. Lead the way.”

 

Lotor ran a hand through his hair, and Allura could’ve sworn she saw that bruise again, before his hair fell back, hiding it from view. She tapped her fingers against her leg anxiously as they started walking again, starting to think why the hell Lotor of all people would have a bruise on his face. Why Lotor of all people would have bruises on his torso. Why Lotor of all people would miss school.

 

They got to the cafe soon enough, and Allura shook some of the rain out of her hair, wiping her boots on the welcome mat. Lotor waved at the barista, who saluted him. “Hey, Latte,” she said, leaning forward on the counter. “Hey, Kerian,” he said.

 

“Same as usual?” she asked, and he nodded. “What about your hot date?”

 

Lotor sighed, glaring at the barista who smiled in amusement. Allura could feel her face getting red, and she coughed awkwardly. Lotor turned to her. “You want anything?”

 

Allura shrugged. “Uh, I don’t know. You pick.”

 

Kerian blinked, but then shrugged, putting something into the . “Alright then,” she said.

 

Lotor motioned towards the tables and couches around the cafe. “Go find somewhere to sit. I’ll pay.”

 

Allura nodded, adjusting the strap of her backpack on her shoulder as she walked over to an old sofa hidden away in the corner, putting her stuff on the floor as she sat down. The sofa was all lumpy and sunken in, and Allura was practically eaten by the couch, letting out a small yelp as Lotor came around the corner. She blushed at little bit as he saw his lips quirk up in what you might call a smile.

 

“It’s an old sofa,” she explained, scooching forward before she merged with the cushions. Lotor waved her off. “It’s happened to everyone, no need to get embarrassed.”

 

Allura raised an eyebrow. “Even to you?” Lotor frowned. “I’m part of everyone, aren’t I?”

 

She shrugged. “You just… don’t seem like it, I guess. It seems like you should be put upon a pedestal, or you-,”

 

“Stop,” Lotor said, any amusement leached out of his voice. “Stop talking.”

 

Allura shut her mouth, glancing at Lotor who looked shaken. Angry. Sad. Nostalgic. Afraid. All of them at the same time. Nothing at all. She wrung her hands together. “Sorry,” she whispered.

 

Lotor shook his head. “Just don’t- don’t say things like that. Please.”

 

“Yeah,” she said quietly. “I won’t.”

 

“Thank you,” Lotor said, looking down at the coffee table, tapping his fingers against his leg. Allura tugged at a strand of hair. “Why?”

 

Lotor shook his head. “Because I don’t appreciate liars,” he said quietly, before looking up as Kerian walked over with their food, setting it down on the table. She looked between the two of them suspiciously, but one look from Lotor and she held her hands up in surrender and walked away.

 

Allura opened her mouth to say something, confused by Lotor's last statement before he cleared his throat and looked at Allura. “So, what kind of rumors have they been spreading at school?” he asked, a hint of amusement in his voice. Allura snorted. “Each is more ridiculous than the last.”

 

“Oh? Are they still insinuating I'm possessed by a demon?”

 

Allura shook her head. “Aliens. Mafia. Elopement. Royalty.”

 

“So the school thinks my life is a shitty sci-fi book,” Lotor hummed, taking a sip of his smoothie. Allura laughed. “And you’re a what? Royal alien who elopes with a member of the space mafia?”

 

He shrugged, smiling faintly. “Something along those lines, yeah.”

 

Allura took a bite of her sandwich, glancing at Kerian who was behind the counter, talking with a young woman with pink hair, laughing a little. “So, you come here often?”

 

Lotor glanced at her, then followed her gaze to Kerian, frowning a little. “I… yeah, pretty often. Kerian’s nice, and the food here is good. It’s cozy.” His voice seemed a bit strained, a bit quiet, and Allura didn’t understand why. It wasn’t like she would figure out anything about him because of his lunch habits. _Your secrets are safe and sound_ , she thought bitterly. It was infuriating.

 

Even if she wasn’t pining after him like a lovesick schoolgirl, she still wanted to get to know him. Piece by piece, she had picked away at his mask, cradling every little piece of his personality she managed to uncover.

 

He liked indigo. He loved the soft cold, but he hated the biting cold. He loved the stars. His favorite type of TV shows were crime TV shows, because it made him think. He used to want to be an astronaut when he was a little boy. Now he doesn’t know what he wants to be. His favorite constellation was Andromeda.

 

And then she decided to notice a bruise and his mask came back even stronger than before. Now he missed school for two days and he was basically impenetrable. Cautious, paranoid, almost scared. He didn’t trust her the way she wanted him to and she hated it. She hated that he refused to open up, he refused to let himself be vulnerable even if he needed to be.

 

“Is there something wrong?”

 

Allura blinked, glancing at Lotor. “No? Why would there be?”

 

“You were frowning, and tapping your finger against your knee. It’s what you do when you’re angry.” Lotor took another sip of his smoothie.

 

She looked down at her hand, clenching her fist to stop the tapping, and tried to stop frowning. She had forgotten that Lotor could read anyone like a bloody book within the first day of meeting them. Every little one of his tells she had discovered over weeks and weeks of observing him, and he had managed to figure her out in only an hour.

 

Oh god, that meant he could’ve known about her crush on him.

 

She started tapping her knee again.

 

Lotor didn’t mention it.

 

They finished eating in relative silence, Allura too deep in her own head to keep up much of a conversation. Lotor didn’t seem to really be in the mood to talk anyways. She noticed Kerian glancing at him every once in a while, her brow furrowed with worry, but Allura didn’t think much of it.

 

When they left, the rain had only gotten worse. Allura shivered a little as some stray drops ran down her back from a leak in the roof as they waited on the veranda, glancing at Lotor, secretly hoping he would let her borrow his jacket. He always seemed to run hotter than most anyways, and he had offered it before. Lotor hummed, glancing out at the rain, shifting as he noticed her shivering and he picked at his jacket again. “I mean, you don’t have to let me borrow it if you don’t want me to, I just-.”

 

He just shook his head, sighing a little and tugged it off, handing it to Allura.

 

She just stared.

 

He was wearing short sleeves, she had never seen him in short sleeves before, she had never seen the skin on his arms.

 

They were horrifically bruised. Smattering of bruises on his biceps, what looked suspiciously like the shape of a hand on his forearm, bruising on his knuckles that she hadn’t even noticed before. His arm shifted, and his sleeve hitched up a bit, revealing what looked like… a scar?

 

Then she realized his arm had shifted because he was holding the jacket out to her. Allura cleared her throat, immediately feeling ashamed of herself as she took the jacket. It was rude to stare. Even ruder when he had been so obviously trying to hide it.

 

Lotor started walking before she could ask any questions, his hands shoved into his pockets, and Allura struggled to keep up as she pulled on the jacket. It smelled like him, like… the tang of alcohol and flowers and just some smell that she couldn’t put her finger on that just smelled like _Lotor._ Just his natural scent, she supposed.

 

Then she glanced at Lotor’s arms again, and she realized that she could smell the faded metallic scent of blood.

 

It wasn’t until they had been walking for 15 minutes and he stopped in front of an old apartment complex that she decided to speak up.

 

“Lotor…”

 

“Don’t.” His voice was stiff, cold, angry. His steps were faster as he walked through the lobby and up the stairs. Allura faltered in her step a little. “Don’t ask, don’t get worried, just don’t.”

 

“You’ve been bruised for a while now, Lotor, and they’re not just _I ran into something_ bruises. Those are bruises from fights. Why have you been getting in fights?”

 

“Drop it.”

 

“No, I’m not going to drop it. You could get seriously hurt if you keep on getting into fights like these.”

 

Lotor opened a door that seemed to lead to the roof, almost slamming it. “Just stop, they’re just bruises.”

 

Most people said that and meant _they’re just bruises, they’ll heal eventually._ Allura’s heart broke when she realized that he said it and meant _they’re just bruises, i’ve seen worse._ Allura stopped as he walked farther towards the edge of the roof, not caring if she was getting drenched or not. She barely even noticed the rain. “Lotor look at me.”

 

He ignored her.

 

“Lotor, _look at me,_ ” she repeated loudly, grabbing his hand. He stopped, still facing away from her, and she reached up to turn his head towards her, smoothing his wet hair out of his face.

 

There on his jaw, was a big, black and blue bruise. Another one blossomed on his temple. He looked down at her, and she searched his gaze. His expression was cool and collected like always, but his eyes always betrayed him if you knew where to look, and he looked terrified.

 

“Who does this to you?” she whispered.

 

“It doesn’t matter. I’ll get away from them soon enough.”

 

_I’ll get away._

_Did Lotor trust you enough to show you those bruises in the first place?_

_I can hold out long enough._

_Whatever money he’s getting is running out._

_Their reputation has to be squeaky clean, remember?_

_Acxa, I hate to ask this but can I stay at your house?_

 

_I don’t trust Lotor one bit. Not with parents like that._

 

Allura’s hand faltered, and she stared at Lotor. Her breath was shaky.

 

“It’s your parents, isn’t it?”

 

Lotor’s breath hitched, and he pulled away from Allura, looking at the floor like he couldn’t meet her eyes. “It doesn’t matter. Like I said, I won’t be in their lives for much longer.”

 

“That’s why you got so stressed about your grades. That’s why you stay over at your friend’s house so much.”

 

“Just stop, Allura. Stop. It doesn’t matter.”

 

“What the hell do you mean it doesn’t matter? They’re beating you like this and you just tell me to stop worrying? I’m your friend, I don’t want you to get hurt and brush it off like it’s normal, because it’s _not._ ”

 

“Just _drop it,_ ” Lotor hissed. Allura snapped her mouth shut, and she looked away, biting her lip. The only thing that broke the silence was the sounds of the storm and the rush of traffic.

 

“What is this place?”

 

He stayed quiet for a bit. “I come up here all the time when I have to get away from everything. It’s peaceful.”

 

Peaceful.

 

It was peaceful. She could see the city from here, see the vast expanse of the buildings and the park nearby. The library, the baseball stadium lights. It was infinite, eternal. Free. It felt free, like you could soar. She could tell why he enjoyed coming here.

 

Lotor sat down on the edge of the roof, looking down and Allura went to sit down next to him, sitting a bit farther away from him than she would if it was someone like Lance. She tucked a strand of wet hair behind her ear, looking out at the city.

 

“So, how did you become friends with Ezor, Narti, Acxa, and Zethrid?”

 

He sighed. “We became friends in elementary school. We all kind of just… we didn’t have someplace to fit in. Zethrid was too aggressive, Acxa was too serious, Ezor was too peppy, and people tended to avoid Narti like the plague or they tended to pity her and become friends with her for brownie points. As for me, I was always mean, even if unintentionally, or closed off. I wasn’t good at making friends.”

 

“You guys just drifted towards each other then?”

 

“Yeah.” Lotor swung his legs a little. “Since then we’ve been inseparable. The Fab Five we used to call ourselves, but when we got older we realized that we weren’t really fabulous. More alone. So we started secretly calling ourselves the Failed Five. Narti came up with it. She said that we had all failed to be someone everyone else liked.”

 

Allura frowned. “That seems a bit sad.”

 

“We didn’t think so. We thought that maybe we were failures to everyone else, but we weren’t failures to each other. We didn’t care that Zethrid was prone to fighting, or Acxa was quiet and rarely smiled, or that Ezor was always laughing and bouncing. We didn’t care that Narti was blind or mute. They didn’t care that it took me years to finally open up, they didn’t care that I came to school sometimes and didn’t say a word to them. We could stand by each other _because_ we were failures.” He chuckled. “It was a huge surprise to us and to everyone else when the failures found themselves at the top of the social pyramid.”

 

He turned to look at her, a smile on his face that she had never seen before. It was genuine, it was nostalgic, it was… it was enough. She didn’t know how to explain it. But it was enough. He was a broken star, but for that second, that was okay, because his smile was enough. His hair was flowing in the wind, the rain still coming down. The city lights flickered behind him, the soft grey of the clouds making everything look almost sad. But he was alive and thriving, and _enough_ that she couldn’t stop staring.

 

She knew she looked ridiculous. Her mouth hanging slightly open, some wet strands of hair falling in her face, wearing a too big jacket that was almost hanging off her shoulders. But he was enthralling.

 

Then that moment ended.

 

Allura’s phone dinged, jolting her out of her daze, and Lotor’s smile faded. He turned back to the city, smoothing his hair out of his face as Allura fumbled for her phone. It was a text from Lance.

 

_(12:49) Where are you?_

 

She winced. Lance hadn’t even crossed her mind, and she hadn’t even bothered to send any of them a text before she left with Lotor.

 

_(12:50) I didnt see you anywhere at lunch, or in class_

_(12:50) Did you get a hot date or something_

 

_No (12:51)_

_(12:52) I smell a big fat lie_

 

_Not technically. I am out with someone though (12:52)_

_(12:52) HO_

_(12:52) LY_

_(12:52) SHIT_

_(12:53) YOU’RE ON A DATE AND YOU DIDN’T TELL ME_

 

Allura hoped Lotor couldn’t see her blush. She was going to chuck her phone off the roof.

 

_(12:53) WITH WHO_

_(12:53) AM I GOING TO HAVE TO GIVE THEM A SHOVEL TALK_

_(12:53) MY LITTLE BABY IS ALL GROWN UP_

 

_Lance, for your greater good, I would shut up (12:54)_

_Besides it’s not a date. I just decided to skip class and I just happened to be skipping class with someone (12:55)_

_(12: 56) Well who is this someone?_

_(12:57) At least tell me theyre attractive_

_Uh (12:59)_

_Lotor? (1:01)_

_(1:01)..._

_(1:02) I mean_

_(1:02) He is attractive? And im not going to try and control who you hang out with? But why? Exactly? Would you hang out with Lotor?_

 

_Because he’s a friend and I can hang out with friends (1:03)_

 

_(1:04) Understandable, have a nice day_

_(1:04) Are you gonna come back to school or are you missing the whole day?_

 

_I mean, at this point i’m already counted absent for the entire day, so I figure I might as well miss the whole day. You can give me the homework right? (1:04)_

 

_(1:05) Yeah ill give you the work sometime later_

_(1:05) Now tell me did you find out Lotor’s secret weakness? His skin and hair routine?_

 

_I’ll talk to you later Lance. (1:06)_

_(1:06) Rude_

 

Allura put her phone away, chuckling a little.

 

“How’d you meet Lance?”

 

She blinked. “W-what?”

 

“How’d you meet Lance? You guys seem like pretty close friends. Some might even say you like him.”

 

Was that _jealousy?_

 

No. It couldn’t be. They were just friends. Awkward-sort of know each other-found out personal secrets-used to be attracted to him-friends. Maybe he wanted to be better friends with her?

 

Or she just heard wrong. Wishful thinking, but there wasn’t a lot of wishful scenarios where he would be jealous.

 

_Shut up, you’re only going to confuse yourself more._

 

“Is this going to be like 21 questions?”

 

He shrugged. “If you want it to be.”

 

“I met him at the mall actually. He tried to ask me on a date, but he ended up falling flat on his face. I turned him down, obviously, but we hit it off pretty well.”

 

Lotor chuckled. “That seems like him. He’ll flirt with anything except for the person he actually wants to flirt with.”

 

Allura blinked. “What does that mean?”

 

“Kuron,” he said like it was obvious. “He’s head over heels for the guy.”

 

Alarm bells rang in her head. _How?_ She chuckled a little, opening her mouth to deny it before he smiled. “I may be ‘the ruler of the school’,” -he said the last part with air quotes- “but that doesn’t mean I think i’m above everyone. I pay attention to things, pay attention to everyone’s little behaviors. The second most prominent people in the school seem to be you seven, even if you don’t realize it. It’s hard not to pay attention to you.”

 

“Is his crush _that_ obvious?”

Lotor shook his head. “I’m just observant. I notice everyone’s little quirks, their tells. Like when you lie, your dimple shows up because you quirk your mouth a bit like a smile. It’s not noticeable unless you’re looking for it, but it’s there.”

 

Allura’s hand automatically went up to her left cheek where her dimple was, feeling a bit ashamed. “And Lance’s tell? What’s that?”

 

“He bites his pinky nail. Usually when he talks he bites his thumb or his index if he’s excited or anxious, but when he bites his pinky nail in a conversation it means he’s lying. He usually follows it up with a joke or something to take attention away from the lie, too. It’s such an extravagant way of lying that a lot of people just think it’s his regular personality.”

 

“Shiro?”

 

“Bites the inside of his cheek.”

 

“Pidge?”

 

“Fixes her glasses by holding the outer rims instead of just pushing them up on the bridge of her nose.”

 

“Keith?”

 

“His right eyebrow twitches.”

 

“Kuron?”

 

“He scratches his left ear.”

 

“Hunk?”

 

“Hunk can’t lie to save his life, you know that,” Lotor said dryly, laughing a little. Allura chuckled, but she felt a bit… vulnerable. Even _she_ hadn’t figured out all their tells, and she spent every single day with them. Granted, he had been in school with them longer, but as far as Lance had told her, he hadn’t had a single conversation with them. How much did he observe?

 

“...Why do you observe so much? It seems a bit… strange to know all those little things about people.”

 

Lotor got quiet. “Because if I don’t then I might end up-,” he sighed. “I might end up worse than this.”

 

The bruises on his arms seemed to glow like a neon sign. Allura winced. It might be strange to her, but to him it was just a survival instinct. If he didn’t find ways to tell when someone was angry, then he might act the wrong way. Say the wrong thing. End up maybe even in the hospital.

 

The thought made her sick.

 

“How often does this happen?” she asked quietly. She didn’t need to look at his arms for him to understand the question.

 

“Doesn’t matter,” he answered, voice somber. “You don’t know about it at neither does anyone else.”

 

“Your friends know.”

 

“No one else knows they know. I’m just a guy who’s got a nice car, who comes from a rich family, and who’s an asshole. That’s all I am, and that’s all I will be, to you, to the girls, to everyone in the school. That’s all you know me as, got it?”

 

Allura hugged herself. “Why won’t you tell anyone? The cops? A teacher?”

 

Lotor snorted. “Please. And have to deal with CPS because i’m underage? I only have one more year of this. Less. I’ll be out of that house before the fall semester is even over."

 

“You could be out earlier if you just-,”

 

“If I tell any type of authority about this, then I’ll end up in the hospital. Maybe even dead. I’m not going to risk that when I can deal with something i’m _used to_ for a little longer.” Lotor’s voice was harsh, angry. Allura shrunk into herself.

 

Lotor sighed. “I’m sorry. But please, just drop it. I know what i’m doing, Allura. I know how to stay safe from them.”

 

Allura shook her head.

 

“That isn’t safe.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check me out at thepiedownthehall.tumblr.com

**Author's Note:**

> Say hi to me on tumblr at thepiedownthehall.


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